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The Democratic National Convention was winding down with one final night of speeches Thursday in Boston, but some local delegates said that the real work — getting their man elected — was just about to begin.

“I think that it’s incredible to be here, with all of the excitement and color, but basically, I think that the deeper on-going purpose has to do with energizing the people that work at the grass-roots level and inspire our Missourians with a hopeful message that we have the power to restore our faith and confidence in government,” said delegate Elizabeth Kerry of Columbia, who is not related to Sen. John Kerry.

Secretary of State Matt Blunt spent almost $48,000 in public money on statewide newspaper advertising that includes his name and picture, urging voters to turn out for Tuesday’s primary.

The ad is to make a return appearance in Missouri’s daily newspapers on Monday — the day before Blunt faces five little-known opponents in the Republican primary for governor. Blunt used federal funds to pay $47,984 to the Missouri Press Association to place the ads twice through Tuesday’s primary in 295 daily and weekly newspapers across the state, said Mike Sell, MPA’s advertising director.

CREVE COEUR – Soft greens, humid air and virtually no wind provided the perfect condition for a blur of red numbers to appear on the scoreboards at Bellerive Country Club during the U.S. Senior Open on Thursday.

Twenty-six players finished under par, the second highest number of such scores in the first round of a Senior Open in the tournament’s 25-year history, and Peter Jacobsen and Craig Stadler used a barrage of birdies to climb to the top of the leader board heading into today’s second round.

This year at MU football and basketball games, you will hear the high-pitched toot-toot of a Wienerwhistle: Oscar Mayer is now the official hot dog of MU athletics.

John Felver, senior account executive with Mizzou Sports Properties, a private company that contracts with the university, said the company was looking to make more money for MU. The arrangement is part of a larger consumer promotion deal with Kraft Foods, which owns Oscar Mayer.

During public debates and in personal statements, the four candidates for Boone County Sheriff say that reducing methamphetamine use and increasing the presence of deputies in communities will be priorities, if they are elected.

Combating methamphetamine production in Boone County is a major issue say Democrat Ken Kreigh, a former sheriff’s detective, and Republican Mick Covington, a former captain at the Columbia Police Department. Both Kreigh and Covington have a background fighting drugs. Before he resigned from the department this year, Kreigh was a supervisor of the drug enforcement unit. Covington was an undercover narcotics agent for two years.

In the end, it was not a question of whether Boone County sheriff candidate Dwayne Carey lied. It was whether it mattered.

Allegations that Carey, a captain with the Boone County Sheriff’s Department, lied under oath to cover an affair with a former subordinate were dismissed Thursday. Investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol concluded Carey’s testimony was not relevant to the dismissal of a discrimination lawsuit filed in 1999.

Temporary utility rate increases, which cost Columbia residents an average of $5.90 per month, may become permanent in the next fiscal year as a result of sewer, water and electric revenue adjustments in the proposed 2005 city budget.

With Columbia’s power costs on the rise, the city anticipates the need for a 9 percent overall increase in electric revenue, City Manager Raymond Beck said at a press conference Thursday morning. The increase will replace a temporary 9.5 percent increase that will be effective until Oct. 1.

Dressed in shades of yellow, four groups of children and adult volunteers at First Presbyterian Church attempt to pop up in unison when it’s their turn to sing, “Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord!”

The result is less than unified — they look almost like popcorn, bursting up with energetic randomness — but that just adds to the fun. Off-tempo shouts and giggles punctuate the familiar Sunday school song, adding to the excitement.

The North Central Columbia Neighborhood Association is working with an independent planning consultant to create a compatible and consistent master plan for its challenging blend of business and housing.

Linda Rootes, the neighborhood association’s founder, said the planning project will explain the area’s vanishing investments and fading residential development.

West Nile virus has been found in three different mosquito pools in Boone County, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The mosquito-borne disease has yet to appear in birds or humans in the area. One human case of West Nile has been confirmed in St. Charles.

Boone County is one of three Missouri counties with West Nile-positive mosquitoes, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Tuesday, St. Louis County had 72 infected pools and St. Charles County had two.

About 160 Columbia-area Democrats were on their feet, clapping and cheering for more than a minute at Boone County Democratic Headquarters on Thursday night as Sen. John Kerry was introduced for his nomination acceptance speech.

In a large room filled with red and blue balloons — and, more important to this crowd, a pair of televisions — supporters laughed at Kerry’s jokes, cheered when he accepted the nomination and burst into applause on points of policy.

MU athletic department officials reassured the Faculty Council on Thursday that the school’s response to allegations of rules violations by the National Collegiate Athletics Association was “thorough and valid.”

“We feel good about our responses,” said Sarah Reesman, associate director of athletics services. “We went ahead and admitted that we made some mistakes.”

No definitive cause of death was identified in the case of Seaman, the dog of the Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, Waverly Police Chief Jesse Coslet said. According to the final report, Seaman probably died of either diaphragmatic hernia or acute heat stress, Coslet said.

The final diagnosis comes after a necropsy and a pesticides test, performed in the MU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and toxicology tests for poisons and amphetamines, carried out in an out-of-state diagnostic lab.